I Swear We're Gonna Make It, Sooner or Later
by chalantness
Summary: [for an-ime-goil] He shifts her in his arms a little and says, "Hey," and gets this smile on his face that shouldn't make him look so attractive considering the layer of dirt coating his skin.


**Title:** _I Swear We're Gonna Make It, Sooner or Later  
_**Rating:** PG-13  
**Word Count:** ~1,400  
**Characters:** Steve/Natasha  
**Prompt:** after the bunker explosion  
**Summary:** He shifts her in his arms a little and says, "Hey," and gets this smile on his face that shouldn't make him look so _attractive_ considering the layer of dirt coating his skin.

**For:** an-ime-goil

**I Swear We're Gonna Make It, Sooner or Later**

Her muscles ache and head hurts like hell, and she's not really sure how long that blast knocked her out for before she finally came back to her senses, but it feels like she was unconscious for a while. It takes a moment after waking up for her to, you know, _fully_ wake up, but despite her fuzzy senses, she knows Steve's the one carrying her.

He has a distinctive profile.

He also knows she's awake now, because he shifts her in his arms a little and says, "Hey," and gets this smile on his face that shouldn't make him look so _attractive_ considering the layer of dirt coating his skin. She probably looks worse, though, so she's hardly one to talk.

"Hey yourself," she replies, and her voice sounds as crappy as she feels. He glances at her, concerned, but she just shakes her head. "I'm fine. You can set me down now."

He lets out a breath, sounding almost amused. "I don't think so."

"I don't remember giving you an option," she points out, though she sounds more exhausted than demanding. "Come on, Steve. You need a break."

"Got injected with a serum, remember? You'd be surprised at how far I can stretch my limits." She arches an eyebrow at that, feeling her lips tug upward in a teasing smile, and he just chuckles and shakes his head without even glancing at her, probably having imagined her reaction before finishing his sentence. "I'm never hearing the end of that, am I?"

"Never," she promises.

He glances at her again, his smile growing. "Well, if you're about to crack jokes then you're probably holding up alright."

"Exactly, so you can put me down," she tries again.

"Nat, _no_," he says, though he sounds more pleading than upset. "It's only for a little longer, anyway, until I can borrow another car."

She furrows her eyebrows at this and looks away, finally taking in their surroundings. They're in a suburban area of some sort, walking in the shadows of a line of trees behind a block of houses. Considering they'd been at an abandoned military training camp stationed miles away from the nearest civilian population, he made an impressive distance. It's still dark out, too, which means he'd walked as far as he did in a rather short amount of time, while carrying her and having to be inconspicuous about it. And she doesn't care how much that serum strengthened his stamina or endurance or anything else. It's been a long day for her and an even longer one for him. He has to be tired right now and she wants him to rest.

So she says, "Steve," in this voice she's hardly ever used before and it makes him stop completely and look at her. "Find a car quickly, alright? You shake me around too much."

There's this short pause where he just _looks _at her with a hard expression on his face. Then gets this small grin on his face and this look in his eyes, like he heard what she really meant (and maybe he did, and maybe that kind of freaks her out), and says, "Yes, ma'am."

She smiles and looks away, knowing she'll just stare at him if she lets herself.

They come across an auto body after a few more blocks and there's compact car in the parking lot beside it, and even though the street's empty, Steve glances around first before walking them over to it.

"Hold on… I'm going to…" He starts to lower her onto the ground but she just shakes her head a little, shifts herself out of his arms and onto her feet, and immediately regrets doing so as pain shoots through her body. She lets out a strangled noise and stumbles against the car for support. Steve breathes, "_Natasha_," in this panicked voice as he grasps her arm gently, andthe annoying part is she can't figure out where the pain is coming from – it's just _there_ and it _hurts_, and she shuts her eyes and grits her teeth as she waits for it to pass.

After a moment, she lets out a breath and opens her eyes, meeting Steve's worried expression. She _hates_ seeing him so distressed.

"Sorry," she says, mustering a little smile. "Just go and do your… _borrowing _thing. The sooner we can get on the road, the better." He nods but doesn't move right away, just looks over her worriedly. She tilts her head and runs the pad of her thumb over his forehead and says, "You'll get frown lines even sooner if you keep that face up, old man."

He chuckles and shakes his head, his entire body relaxing just a little bit more.

"I can recommend some wrinkle creams."

He chuckles but doesn't respond, and she leans more of her weight against the car and takes a moment to catch her breath. Her eyelids are heavy and her limbs are sore and she feels _tired_, but it's nothing she won't be able to shake off in another hour or two, once she's a little more rested.

When Steve gets the passenger door open, she lets him take her hand and help her inside, shutting her door for her as she leans over to unlock his door. She scans the back seat and doesn't find anything, but there're a few phone chargers inside the glove compartment when she checks, and she begins to untangle them as Steve gets the car started and pulls them out of the parking stall. The third charger she tries is compatible with her phone, and she slumps back against her seat and very nearly sighs in relief as her screen lights up.

"Can you dig up private information on your phone?" Steve asks.

"Yeah," she says, typing in her password. "It's secure, but there's no guaranteeing they'll be able to track us with it eventually, so we have to be quick. What do you need?"

"Sam Wilson. Can you get his address? He'll be able to shelter us, and he's the only one I can think of that we can go to."

She looks at him. "Is that the guy from the other morning?" Steve raises his eyebrows, glances at her, and she just shrugs her shoulders. "I've never met him before but he looks like he could be a Sam Wilson," she admits with a shrug, though she hardly feels as calm as her voice suggests. "Should we really involve someone else?"

"We can trust him," he says, because he knows that's what she was really asking. She presses her lips together, still staring at him. "He's a good guy, Natasha."

"We thought we worked for the good guys," she reminds softly.

"No, I know… I know." He exhales, gripping the steering wheel a little tighter. "But Sam… He's _good_, alright? We can trust him."

"Steve," she says.

They come to a stop at a red light and he turns to meet her eyes, lips parting as if to respond, though he doesn't say anything. He just lifts a hand and reaches for her, and while she can tell the gesture is hesitant, somehow she can also tell it's not because he's afraid. He pushes his fingers gently through her hair and traces his thumb over her the side of her face, holding her gaze. She's always been more in love with the way he looks at her than she wants to admit, but for right now, she just leans into his touch and lets it comfort her.

"I'd never put you in harm's way, Natasha."

"I know," she breathes. "But that's not always up to you. Trouble just has a way of following."

He nods a little, smoothing his thumb over the apple of her cheek. "And we'll deal with it as we go, but we're… We need to be in this together, alright?" She glances down and leans into the palm of his hand a little more, exhaling. "You need to trust me."

"Well, after our first road trip, I trust everything about you except for your driving," she says, meeting his eyes. "Just don't get us killed."

They just look at each other for a moment, and then they're laughing, and it kind of startles the both of them, but it's also relieving and she didn't realize how much she needed to laugh until now. "I make no promises," he jokes, pulling his hand back as the light turns green, and she actually _giggles_ as he purposely steps on the gas and jerks them forward.

After they've gotten Sam's address and calculated the GPS, she rests her head against his shoulder and practically hears his smile when he asks, "You alright there?"

That's kind of a lot of different questions in one, but she just says, "Yeah, I am now," because it's the truth.


End file.
